Love is Always Open Arms

“Love is always open arms.” ~ Leo Buscaglia

There is a story about a boy who left home and dishonored his father by spending a large amount of money on fast and reckless living. When the boy's money ran out, he was faced with the prospect of returning home to face his father, knowing the father had every reason to be disappointed in him. Filled with fear and shame he approached his home, his mind racing with words of apology. Before the boy could say a word, his father rushed to him with open arms and hugged his lost son in joy and love.

Have we done this? Have we found it in our hearts to accept what a loved one does, even if we would have wanted something different?

Love like this is the highest kind of love. It finds joy in others no matter what, because it recognizes the freedom of those we love, and doesn't chain them to our own wants. It is the same kind of love God has for us.

Are my arms open today​?

Footprints - New Version

Imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord's footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns. For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord's, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true friends!

This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints that once etched the sand next to Jesus' are now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones, you and Jesus are becoming one. This goes on for many miles, but gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the large footprints seem to grow larger. Eventually they disappear altogether. There is only one set of footprints they have become one.

This goes on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back. This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of prints. You are amazed and shocked.

Your dream ends. Now you pray:

"Lord, I understand the first scene, with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with You."

"That is correct."

"And when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps, following You very closely."

"Very good! You have understood everything so far."

“When the smaller footprints grew and filled in Yours, I suppose that I was becoming like You in every way."

"Precisely."

"So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The footprints separated, and this time it was worse than at first."

There is a pause as the Lord answers, with a smile in His voice. "You didn't know? It was then that we danced!"

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Luke's Good Samaritan story is so well known that it has become part of our common culture. Almost everyone knows that a Good Samaritan is a compassionate and merciful person who helps others in need. In our litigious society, we even have Good Samaritan laws to protect professional people who respond to emergencies from lawsuits. But this parable is about more than compassion and mercy. It is about the second Great Commandment and about how we put it into practice.

The Great Commandment, found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, is "you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” We find the Second Great Commandment in Leviticus 19:18, "You must love your neighbor as yourself." If the scholar of the law in the Good Samaritan parable interpreted "your neighbor" the way most of the scribes and Pharisees of the day did, then it meant the upstanding citizens of Judea. Jesus' example of a Samaritan as the good neighbor must have scandalized the scholar, the disciples and anyone else who was listening. Jews despised Samaritans. They were, as far as the Jews were concerned, heretics, law breakers, thieves and half casts. The Samaritan should have been the villain of the story.

However, in the kingdom of God, everything is topsy turvy. Villains become heroes, outcasts become insiders, strangers become friends and sinners are welcomed. There is no exclusivity in the kingdom. Which brings us to the scholar’s question, “who is my neighbor?” According to Mosaic Law, neighbor had a very narrow definition – members in good standing of the 12 tribes of Israel. If we used this narrow definition, our neighbors would be people we could easily love, people like us, good law-abiding citizens of the United States of America. Jesus’ new law of the kingdom of God challenges us to expand our notion of neighbor. We must love everyone we encounter, everyone in Peachtree City, everyone in Georgia, everyone in the USA and everyone in the world. And we should love them not as we love ourselves but as Jesus loves us. At the last supper, Jesus told his disciples, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for another” (John 13:34-35).

Love is the foundation on which all God’s commandments are built; love of God and love of one another. If we love as Jesus loves us, then all of us will be Good Samaritans, we will treat everyone with compassion and mercy. Remember that what Jesus said to the scholar, he says to each of us and he says to the world; “Go and do likewise.”

God most merciful,
you have established the great commandment of love
as the summary and the soul of the entire law.
Fill our hearts, then, with compassion and generosity
toward the sufferings of our sisters and brothers,
so that, like Christ,
we may become Good Samaritans where we live and work.
We ask you this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

Footpath of Peace

To be glad of life because it gives you a chance to love and to work and to play, and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions but not contented with yourself until you have made the best use of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbors except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friend and every day of Christ, and to spend as much time as you can with body and with spirit in God’s out-of-doors. These are the little guideposts on the Footpath Of Peace.

~ Henry Van Dyke​

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the biggest challenges I confront when traveling is what and how much to pack. The temptation is to throw everything into the suitcase – that extra shirt or pair of socks – just in case I might need them. Inevitably I pack too much. My role model for packing is a friend, Eddie, who joined the Missionaries of Charity Brothers back in 1975. His instructions were clear and succinct: bring one full change of clothing, a toothbrush, razor, comb and a Bible. For the eight years Eddie served with the Missionaries of Charity that is all he had. Everything he owned fit in a small backpack and he was free to go wherever the Lord Jesus led him.

God does not expect everyone to follow Eddie’s example. However, God does ask us to travel lightly through life. In today’s Gospel from Luke 10:12,17-20 Jesus tells the 72 disciples to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.” What does this mean for us? It means that we are not to carry excess baggage. We should not clutter up our lives with material possessions or become bogged down in the things of this life like bad habits or destructive relationships. What Jesus wants us to carry though life is his message that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” There is no need for baggage in the Kingdom of God. And the only reward we can expect is that our “names are written in heaven."

Saint Mother Teresa once said, “The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.” This is something we all should reflect on as we go about our daily lives.

As a mother comforts her child, O God, 

you embrace a broken world; 

 you empower us - your Son’s disciples - 

 to bear your gift of peace to all peoples. 

 Let us go then, into your harvest not as masters but as your laborers, 

 seeking not to be successful but only to be faithful, 

 rejoicing that our names are written in heaven. 

 We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

 who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

Independence Day

 

July 2 - St. Otto

On July 2, the Church celebrates the life and work of St. Otto. He was born in 1060 in Swabia, and died on June 30, 1139. He was the Bishop of Bamberg, an indefatigable evengelizer, and the apostle of the Pomeranians.

He was born of noble rank and ordained a priest sometime before the age of 30. He joined the service of Emperor Henry IV in  1090 and became his chancellor in 1101. He served Henry IV and his successor, Henry V, loyally, but he disaproved of the latter’s disgraceful treatment of Pope Paschal.

Otto was consecrated a bishop on May 13, 1106, and set to work founding new monasteries, reforming existing ones, building schools and churches, and completing the construction of the cathedral.  He lived a poor and simple life, and was called the “Father of the monks” for the concern he showed toward religious orders.

In 1122 Otto was commissioned by the Polish Duke Boleslaw III to convert Pomerania to Christianity, and he set about this mission in 1124. He traveled across Pomerania twice, and won over the people with his holiness, quiet generosity, and gentle, inspiring sermons.

The conversion of Pomerania was his greatest apostolic work. He baptized over 22,000 people and established 11 churches. Many miracles were attributed to him throughout his two journeys, and many more after his death.